- Hi guys, welcome back to my channel.
And today I'm gonna show you two pasta dishes
that will get you out of your pasta rut
if you're in one (chuckles) and don't feel bad
because they're easy to get into.
And if you're stuck in a recipe rut
that's bigger than pasta, I've got just the thing for you.
I've put together my new year recipe reboot
of six different recipes that have come from my archives,
so they're old recipes, but I think that they do deserve
a reshuffle, that I think are perfect for the wintertime.
I've organized them into a really handy
little e-book that's free of charge.
All you have to do is click the link,
sign up for my newsletter,
and then you will be able to download
this beautiful e-book that comes
with step-by-step instructions, photographs,
all the videos for each of the recipes,
and I've even thrown in a shopping list
to help you organize the whole week.
Now if you're already signed up for my newsletter,
no need to do anything.
If you're interested in the e-book,
it will be in today's newsletter.
All right, let's make some pasta.
So the first dish we're gonna make is
a really delicious ravioli recipe that has pesto
and vegetables and peas and spinach.
So if you love ravioli and you love pesto sauce,
but you're just looking for a little bit
more vegetables, this is a great one.
Okay, so the first thing
we wanna do is take one full shallot,
so you can just go ahead and cut them thinly,
you can also cut half moons if you prefer.
I like a shallot because I find that they're sweeter
than an onion, but if you didn't have a shallot,
you could also use a red onion.
That would be great, or you could use a wite onion, too.
Then we are gonna throw in our shallots
and we just wanna cook these down
until they're translucent and fragrant.
So you can go ahead and get your ravioli cooking.
I'm just using plain ricotta cheese ravioli.
Then we're gonna add a quarter cup of store-bought pesto.
And that's another thing that's gonna make this so easy.
And then we're also gonna add a half a cup
of frozen peas, which makes this super easy
'cause there's no chopping or dicing,
they're just ready to go.
Then I'm gonna steal some of this pasta water here
and add it to our pesto sauce.
Pasta water is such a nice starchy water
that it'll add some nice liquid
to our pesto sauce without thinning it out too much.
Then for a little bit of richness, one to two tablespoons
of heavy cream, then for a little freshness,
we're going to add a half teaspoon of fresh lemon zest,
which is such a nice combination
against the peas and the spinach that we're gonna add.
So you can add one and a half cups of baby spinach.
Again, no chopping, no dicing. It's so easy.
You just pop it in and cook it until it starts to wilt.
Then you can go ahead and drain your pasta,
add your cooked ravioli to the sauce,
and gently stir them around so that all
that sauce is coated with the ravioli.
Okay, we're good to go.
And then all we're gonna do is just out onto a platter.
And then if you'd like, a little bit
of Parmesan cheese on top isn't so bad either.
It's so delicious because you have that creamy ricotta
with the lemon zest and the pesto,
the peas and the shallots, and of course,
a little hint of decadence, the heavy cream, so yummy.
Now for all of you that left a comment in my Community tab
when I asked what type of recipes
you guys would this year and you said things
that will feed kids fast and they'll eat it,
(chuckles) this is a great one.
So if your kids'll eat pasta and tomato sauce,
this is just like one step up from that,
but a little bit more gourmet for the grownups.
It's a linguine with vodka sauce without the vodka.
I'm gonna show you a trick for that.
And my kids love it, and I have got the pickiest pallets
on the planet, let me tell you.
So we're first gonna add some olive oil in our pan here.
And then we are gonna go back to our shallots.
See, when I throw them in the cart, I use them everywhere.
We're gonna add just one shallot,
but this one has been diced.
And you just wanna cook this down
until it's nice and fragrant, and at this stage,
you can also season with a little salt and pepper.
This pasta recipe is even easier than the other one,
believe it or not.
This one, in fact, my eldest daughter, who's 14,
she just turned 14, she makes this one for me
and it's so great when they get older
and they can actually cook for you, it's so cute.
While that is cooking, I have a pound of linguine here.
I actually don't use a full pound.
I use a half a pound for four.
I've got my boiling water here that I salted.
I am gonna break it in half, I know.
I just think it's easier.
Now we're gonna add a third of a cup of tomato paste.
So I think that this is another great thing
to have in the pantry at all times.
I really liked the tubes because you just use
whatever you need and then put the rest in the fridge.
That way you're not opening a whole can
when you might not need a whole can.
There, let's see, I'm just gonna eyeball it.
There we go, okay, then we're gonna stir this up
and you kind of want it on a low flame
so you don't burn the shallots.
And then at this point so we can get it kind of saucy,
I like to steal some of my pasta water again.
We're gonna do a full ladle.
There, whoo, see it's nice and hot
and it'll just get our tomato paste to soften up
and turn into more like a sauce.
So this is my cheat for not using vodkas.
I know that this could be controversial,
but I actually don't think
that the vodka sauce needs the vodka.
Maybe we'll just call it creamy tomato sauce.
I've tried it both ways.
I don't really notice any difference.
Some people say that it brings the sweetness down
of the tomatoes, but I happen to like
the sweetness of the tomato, so I also like the pasta water
because the starch in it makes
the sauce really smooth and silky.
I think it gives it a really great texture.
And then we are also gonna add two cloves
of garlic that we have minced.
I like to add the garlic
at this stage so that it doesn't burn.
Otherwise, if you add it with the shallots,
I find that the garlic has a tendency
of burning over the shallots are done,
so this way we kind of avoid all that.
And then we're gonna add a third of a cup of heavy cream.
You could also use the half and half.
It would be a little bit thinner if you did that.
Then for a little heat, we're gonna add
a quarter teaspoon of red pepper flakes.
You could add more if you like the spiciness.
Then we're gonna add a quarter cup
of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, in it goes.
I just think you get so much more flavor
from the freshly grated than you would
if you just bought it in the tub.
I also find that Parmesan cheese,
because it's a hard cheese,
they're meant to last a long time.
So I might buy one wedge a month or so
and sometimes it even lasts longer than that.
That's another reason why I like this recipe.
There's so many pantry staples
that you probably don't have to go out and get much.
You probably have maybe even everything
right now to make it tonight.
Okay, now at this stage I would taste it
because the cheese is pretty salty,
we salted the shallots, you may not need any seasoning.
Let's see. Oh, that's so delicious.
Oh, it's perfect. I'm not gonna add any salt.
I may have added a few too many red peppers,
(chuckles) so easy does it.
Now one other thing that I like to do,
which isn't very traditional for vodka sauce,
but I do think it adds a nice freshness,
to add some freshly chopped parsley.
I typically like the flat leaf parsley
just because I find that,
or Italian parsley you also see it as,
I find it has more flavor, but for some reason,
I don't know, maybe because of the quarantine,
I have not been able to get flat leaf parsley.
I'm only getting the curly parsley, so I don't know.
Are you guys having that issue, too? It's kind of funny.
I did not plant my parsley yet this year,
and so I'm looking at a big overgrown dead basil plant
that's out of my garden, but usually I grow my own,
but this is what I get for not planning ahead.
Okay, and then we are just gonna add
about a tablespoon or so into the tomato sauce.
There, and if you find that your tomato sauce
is starting to get a little too thick
as you wait for your pasta, just go ahead
and take some more of that pasta water and thin it out.
And because it's so hot, it's not going
to cool your sauce down any.
The only thing it will do, just be careful,
don't add too much, is it'll start
to dilute the sauce a little bit.
So if you taste it again, you might find that,
oh, maybe you need a little bit more pepper flakes,
a little bit more salt or cheese
just to bring the flavor back up.
Okay, our pasta is drained and ready to go,
and we are just gonna pour it into our sauce.
Now to coat your sauce, I think your best bet is a pair
of tongs, because that way you can really make sure
that it's well coated, and it'll help you also
put it into the bowl a bit better.
There we go. Ooh, look how delicious.
And then you can also add a little bit of freshly
grated Parmesan cheese on top just to finish it off.
And then for a little freshness,
you can add a little bit more freshly chopped parsley.
I love to serve family style when I'm feeding kids
because then that way they can serve themselves.
And there's something about putting the kids
in charge of serving themselves
when you're trying to introduce new foods.
I find it goes over a lot better that way
than portioning things out and saying, "Okay, now dive in."
Just let them kind of discover it on their own.
I think you'll have a lot better success that way.
All right, well, I hope you guys enjoy these pasta recipes
and it gets you out of your pasta rut,
and be sure to download my new weekly rotation for winter
if you're looking for new recipes to get you
out of a whole recipe rut altogether.
All right, you guys, the link it in the description,
and I'll see you back here next week.
Until then, bye.